As the anniversary of the Spanish-American War draws closer I thought that I would look at two of the more recent books to come out on the war. The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898, by G.J.A. O'Toole, WW Norton, 1984. Mr O'Toole has written a well crafted history of the Spanish-American War starting with a careful look at the background which lead to the war and then an account of the fighting in both Cuba and the Philippines, as well as the Puerto Rican Campaign and the bloodless capture of Guam. Mr. O'Toole has written a book in which history comes alive. He has used a lot of photographs which are part of his personal collection. Well worth reading.

A more recent title is The Spanish-American War 1898 by Albert Nofi, combined Books, 1996. This book covers a lot of ground in 344 pages. I found it to be easy to read and loaded with information including another look at the explosion of the USS Maine, charts and other useful information. Anyone thinking of fighting the Spanish-American War would want to have a copy of this book. It is currently in print.

There is another book coming out but from what I have heard about it I fear that it is one of the 'politically correct' revisionist histories that have been appearing.

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